Sunday, February 7, 2016
Notes re Canada Water Masterplan exhibtion 5th February 2016
Friday, February 5, 2016
Canada Water Area Action Plan exhibition 5th February 2016
I said that I would put all my planning stuff on my other blog, and I will do so with a commentary, but in the meantime, whilst I try to feel a bit less depressed about the whole thing and get my head around what I want to say, here are some images of what they have planned for us after their planned 15 years of construction traffic, noise, dirt and chaos. Basically, they are telling us to kiss the Rotherhithe we know goodbye.
I took the photos at today's exhibition at Surrey Quays Shopping Centre. There were loads of information boards and booklets, and apparently these should be on a website somewhere but I haven't yet gone looking.
The type-written labels superimposed on the photos are mine, which I added to help people orientate themselves. Much of it is so unrecognizable that if it wasn't for Greenland Dock, Canada Water and Southwark Park it would be difficult to know exactly where you were.
Click on any image to see the bigger version.
The Manor at the end of the Howland Great Wet Dock (now Greenland Dock)
Update: Thanks to Phil (@BermondseyBeat) on Twitter for solving the mystery. There is a colour image of it and a full record for it at Collage (Guildhall Art Gallery and London Metropolitan Archives) here: http://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk/collage/app;jsessionid=81444C987D188671B61EE87B615CC857?service=external/Item&sp=ZGreenland+Dock&sp=30022&sp=X
This picture is taken from The Reverend E.J. Beck’s book “Memorials to Serve for the Parish of St Mary Rotherhithe” published in 1907 by Cambridge University Press. Beck does not say where he obtained the image, which is a real frustration because it would be lovely to know more about the painter and where the painting is now located.
We know that the house was built at the same time as the Howland Great Wet Dock, which was built in 1696-1700. The caption says that the house belongs to J. Wells Esq, (who was a local ship builder who invested in the Howland Great Wet Dock and its later expansion), having bought it from the “old Duke of Bedford who formerly resided there” and that the drawing is made in 1706. There appears to be some writing in white at the base of the image in the dark area at centre, but it’s completely illegible. There is also a sign shown on the building at far left, but I can’t make out what it says. The scan is quite a good copy of a very poor black and white image.
I would very much like to know more about the painting. As I said above, the current location of the painting would be good, as would the artist's name. The obvious course of action is to contact the Southwark Local History Library and Sands Picture library but I wondered if anyone reading this knows anything about it?
This picture is taken from The Reverend E.J. Beck’s book “Memorials to Serve for the Parish of St Mary Rotherhithe” published in 1907 by Cambridge University Press. Beck does not say where he obtained the image, which is a real frustration because it would be lovely to know more about the painter and where the painting is now located.
We know that the house was built at the same time as the Howland Great Wet Dock, which was built in 1696-1700. The caption says that the house belongs to J. Wells Esq, (who was a local ship builder who invested in the Howland Great Wet Dock and its later expansion), having bought it from the “old Duke of Bedford who formerly resided there” and that the drawing is made in 1706. There appears to be some writing in white at the base of the image in the dark area at centre, but it’s completely illegible. There is also a sign shown on the building at far left, but I can’t make out what it says. The scan is quite a good copy of a very poor black and white image.
I would very much like to know more about the painting. As I said above, the current location of the painting would be good, as would the artist's name. The obvious course of action is to contact the Southwark Local History Library and Sands Picture library but I wondered if anyone reading this knows anything about it?
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
A lovely walk in Russia Dock Woodland today
I went up to the Lavender Pumphouse today, through Russia Dock Woodland and back again, diverting briefly into Stave Hill Ecological Park to check out the violets. It was the most wonderful day for a walk. There's not much to add to that, so here are the photographs. They were taken with my little handbag camera, and it's not really capable of long distance work, so the parakeet (almost invisible to the human eye but very noisy) is really blurred. I had heard about them but never seen one before, so that was a lovely surprise. There was a lot of strimming and mowing going on, and everything was beautifully neat. It was so nice to see everything looking so good that I thought I'd share the photos. You can click on any one of them to see the bigger version>
